Congratulations to Dr. Ranjan Gupta and Dr. Minal Tapadia for winning the Joseph H. Boyes Resident Research Award at the 33rd annual meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, in Seattle. At the residents and fellows conference, 136 abstracts were submitted, with 25 of those selected for podium presentations, and only one award was given.

The Joseph Boyes award is named in honor of Joseph H. Boyes, M.D. (1905-1995) who was an important figure in American Hand Surgery. He was a pivotal founder of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH). He trained a number of hand fellows and was active for many years at the national and international hand meetings. He was also the founding editor of the Journal of Hand Surgery.

The presentation was titled "Attenuation of Robust Glial Scar Formation after Chronic Nerve Compression Injury Can Facilitate Functional Recovery." The project is ongoing and involves examining how neural scarring may contribute to the persistent deficits in nerve function seen after longstanding nerve compression injuries. The project helped elucidate that neural scarring is formed of several molecules, including collagen II, laminin, and fibronectin as well as a family of molecules called chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans that are known to contribute to scar in spinal cord injury. They also took an enzyme called chondroitinase ABC, and injected it into compressed nerves in animal models to see if it might help improve nerve function. The preliminary results are encouraging with some improvement noted in nerve conduction velocities. The team is continuing to make strides in an effort to help patients who suffer from these often debilitating conditions.